How to read a pedigree

In the beginning God created
the heavens and the earth.
Genesis 1:1

Peter at 7 months

When you get a kitten, you should get a pedigree that looks something like this one below. What does it mean? How do you make sense of it?




                           ,--- GC Ratatat Bayou Brazz of Libertycall
                           |    CFA# 0410-597947
                           |
                 ,--- GC, RW Libertycall's Nitemoves of Ratatat
                 |    CFA# 0410-722171
                 |         |
                 |         `--- GC Ratatat's Metilda of Libertycall, DM
                 |              CFA# 0411-541859
                 |
     ,-Sire: GC, BW, RW Ratatat's Night After Nite
     |       CFA# 0410-923362 National Best of Breed 1996
     |           |
     |           |         ,--- GP Ratatat's On Second Thought
     |           |         |    CFA# 1400-616588
     |           |         |
     |           `--- Ratatat's Lisa Jane, DM
     |                CFA# 1401-738251
     |                     |
     |                     `--- GC Ratatat's Ten Purr-Scent 
     |                          CFA# 1401-462428
     |
GC, GP SHADOWLAND'S PETER PAN OF NIGHT SKY
CFA# O410-1085689  born: 07/08/96  Regional Best of Breed SWR 1998                        
     |        
     |                    ,--- GC Kashmirian's Maurice of Ratatat, DM
     |                    |    CFA# 0400-182898
     |                    |
     |          ,--- GC Ratatat Bayou Brazz of Libertycall
     |          |    CFA# 0410-597947
     |          |         |
     |          |         `--- CH Ratatat's Licorice Stick, DM
     |          |              CFA# 0411-29878
     |          |
     `-Dam: CH, GP Libertycall's Nickolina of Shadowland
            CFA# 0411-938052 Hawaii's Best Kitten
                |
                |         ,--- CH Kashmirian's John Henry of Ratatat
                |         |    CFA# 0400-661036
                |         |
                `--- GC Ratatat's Esmerelda of Libertycall, DM
                     CFA# 0401-766651
                          |
                          `--- Ratatat's Delilian
                                  CFA# 0401-415752

Here is basically a family tree for our foudation stud GC, GP Shadowland's Peter Pan of Night Sky, whom we call Peter. This is an example of a pedigree for cats registered in CFA. Pedigrees would be have different titles and numbering systems for other associations, but you can get the idea of how it works with this one. This is Peter's three generation pedigree. In the center to the left is Peter's name. His father or sire is Night After Nite, and his mother or dam is Nickolina. The sire for each cat is listed above and to the right of that cat with vertical line connecting the names, and the dam is likewise to the right and below with lines. For example, Esmerelda's sire is John Henry and dam is Dillian. So, on this pedigree are listed Peter's parents, grand parents, and great-grand parents, along with each cat's CFA awards and registration number. There are also reverse pedigrees that show all of a certain cat¹s offspring to several generations.

What is in the name:

Each cat must have a unique name. To help us to achieve that, we use cattery names. The name at the beginning is the cattery prefix where the cat was bred. (Peter was from Shadowland.) Then there is his name (Peter Pan), which may be used only once within Shadowland cattery, but can be used with other cattery prefixes. However, Peter is no longer with his breeder, so he has our cattery suffix comes after with an "of" attaching it. The cattery suffix may change, if a cat goes to another cattery, but the prefix will stay the same. Any cats bred at our cattery will have "Night Sky's" at front of their names. By looking at the cattery names, we can determine quickly where the cats came from.

Other things can be added to the pedigrees than what is given here. Some breeds have both A and B blood, so a breeder would want to keep track of who is what, so they don't have problems similar to the Rh factor in humans.

Titles and Awards:

A kitten won't have a title or award, but at least some of his ancestors should have something. If you get an adult that was used in a breeding program, they probably would have a title.
CH is Champion. This means this cat went to one or more shows and won six winner's ribbons by being the best male or female in their color or class.
GC is Grand Champion. After becoming a champion, this cat has accumulated at least 200 grand points by beating other champions.
PR is Premier, which is for neuters and spays, and requires the same six winners ribbons as the Champion. (There are no Premiers on this pedigree.)
GP is Grand Premier. After becoming a Premier, this feline has won 75 grand points by beating other Premiers. Just because there are few points to get a GP than a GC, does not make it easier. There are fewer cats competing in Premiership, so it may take just as long to grand a cat in Premiership as Championship.
RW stands for Regional Winner. For a cat to be a Regional Winner, they must be the top 15 kittens, 25 cats in Championship, or 15 in Premiership in their region. Peter's Daughter GP RW Night Sky¹s Furfilled Destiny was 11th highest scoring cat in Premiership in CFA¹s Southwest Region in 1998-1999.
NW stands for National Winner, which means he/she was the in the top 15 kittens, 25 cats in Championship or top 20 in Premiership in the 48 contiguous states. The International and Hawaiian divisions have different awards. This pedigree has no national winners, but if you look at Peter's five generation pedigree, you will see several. Although kittens may receive regional and national wins, they do not compete in Championship or Premiership until adults. A kitten must be at least four months old to compete and becomes an adult at eight months.
BW As of May 2001 CFA started a new title of Breed Winner for the highest scoring cat of their breed for any given year. Peter¹s sire had such a title.
DM is for Distinguished Merit and is found after the name. This says something about a cattery's breeding program. For a female to get a DM, she must produce at least five Grand Champions and fifteen Grands for a male. As you may guess, there are not many DMs made. Peter has an excellent pedigree with five of them in three generations.

Numbers:

Under each name is the CFA registration number. The first four digits tell the breed, color, and sex of the cat. All even numbers are males and odd females. Sable Burmese are 0400 and 0401, black Bombays 0410 and 0411, sable Bombays 0412 and 0413, and black American Shorthairs 0708 and 0709. The 1400 or 1401 denotes a sable Burmese, that there has at least one dilute (chocolate, champagne, or platinum) Burmese in their ancestry. Peter's registration number begins with 0410, meaning he is a black Bombay male. If you look at these numbers in the pedigree, you can tell that there were five Burmese and no black American Shorthairs in three generations. The other digits after the dash form the unique number for that cat. TICA has a totally different system of numbering the cats, based on their birthdates.

Ancestors:

You may notice that Bayou Brazz appears twice on this pedigree. That shows that cousins were bred together. This is called line breeding. On occasion, either intentionally or unintentionally, a breeding may occur with closely related cats. This is called inbreeding. When done intentionally it can be used to prove that there are not serious faults in the line or to set type. On the other hand, excessive inbreeding can limit the gene pool so that the breed loses vigor. (In feral colonies there is much interbreeding of relatives. On the average, they are more inbred than most catteries.) If there were a black American Shorhair on this pedigree, it would be an outcross to a totally unrelated or distantly related felines.

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5/5/2002